Life limps back to normalcy, sun shines

JAMMU: As sun shined over isolated places after three days of snowfall and rainfall, the strategic National Highway between Jammu and Kashmir Valley was partially restored Sunday which could clear only small percentage of vehicles and passengers stranded in Jammu and elsewhere. Meanwhile, after remaining cut off for two days due to heavy snowfall, Kashmir Valley was today connected with the rest of the country as air-traffic resumed here and the highway was partially re-opened for traffic."Air traffic at Srinagar Airport resumed today as flights were able to land and then take-off following improvement in the weather," an airport official said.Flight operations to and fro Srinagar remained suspended for the last two days due to heavy snowfall which also led to the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.The nearly 300-km arterial Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was cleared off the snow and the debris left behind by landslides at few places and those vehicles which were stranded, due to the closure of the only all-weather road-link connecting the Valley with the rest of the country, were allowed to proceed towards Srinagar."The stranded vehicles have been allowed to proceed towards Srinagar after the highway was cleared following improvement in the weather," an official of the Traffic Department said.

He said if the weather permits, traffic would be allowed on the highway tomorrow.Life was thrown out of gear in Kashmir Valley on Friday due to heavy snowfall which continued at some places yesterday as well.During the last 24 hours, Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, which serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, recorded 10 cm of snow.Other places which received snowfall during the last 24 hours were Gulmarg and Kokernag. Some other places received rains, a spokesman of the MeT Office here said.He said Leh, in Ladakh region, was the coldest recorded place in the state as the mercury there dipped nearly four notches to minus 8.0 degrees Celsius.Leh was closely followed by the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg where the minimum temperature settled at minus 7.6 degrees Celsius.Pahalgam recorded a low of minus 3.2 degrees Celsius, while Srinagar city, the summer capital of J-K, and Qazigund recorded the minimum temperature of minus 0.3 degrees Celsius.The weatherman has forecast light rains or snow at some places over the state over the next 24 hours, after which the weather is expected to remain mainly dry for the next few days.Meanwhile, a medium danger avalanche warning was issued today for some avalanche-prone districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and people have been advised not to venture into such areas.Chandigarh-based Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) issued the warning that would be valid for the 24 hours starting at 5 pm today.A SASE advisory said the warning is for avalanche-prone areas in Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Kishtwar, Rajouri, Doda, Poonch and Riyasi of Jammu and Kashmir.